Food Psych Podcast with Christy Harrison

Size-acceptance advocate and yoga teacher Rachel Estapa discusses how being a larger-bodied child led to early experiences of shame and dieting, why diet culture's promise to "fix" us is so alluring, the connection between physical and emotional hungers,  why rediscovering her loves and desires in life was essential to her recovery from dieting, how the practice of yoga helped show her...

Fellow Health at Every Size dietitian Fiona Sutherland joins us to discuss our bodies' intuitive wisdom about food and nourishment, how diet culture cuts us off from that wisdom and how to reclaim it, why she almost quit dietetics and how she ultimately found her way to the anti-diet movement, why we need what she calls "radical nourishment" to heal from diet culture, the importance of...

Fellow intuitive eating coach and non-diet dietitian Jenna Hollenstein discusses food as self-care, why people fall into disordered eating and alcoholism as coping mechanisms, the connection between dieting and religion, how to tolerate discomfort, the role of diet culture in keeping social progress for happening, how to set boundaries and limits, how to practice self-compassion, and a whole lot m...

Fellow anti-diet dietitian Marci Evans shares why some people feel "addicted" to food, what the science actually says about so-called food addiction, how intuitive eating and Health at Every Size can help you recover from disordered eating behaviors, why it's so important that eating-disorder specialists NOT also try to sell weight loss, and lots more.  This episode originally aired No...

Lindy West, author of the book Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman , shares how she became a fat-acceptance activist, the roles that feminism and body-positive imagery played in helping her reject diet culture, her experience of finding love in a larger body, how thin allies to the fat-acceptance movement can help, how she's improved her relationship with food and what she's still working on,...

Body-acceptance coach Rachel Cole returns to discuss why pathologizing our bellies is so harmful, how diet culture infiltrates the world of pregnancy and postpartum, how our bellies protect us during menopause, how Rachel has navigated nutrition and her relationship with food while being pregnant, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about whether it’s possible to be a vegan...

TV writer and She’s All Fat podcast co-host April K. Quioh joins us to talk about how intersectional feminism and sociology helped her to finally let go of dieting and embrace her body size, why we need to challenge fatphobia and fight for it to be considered a valid form of discrimination, why it’s important to unlearn the diet-culture rules we’ve internalized around food and our bodies, the hist...

Body-image activist Victoria Welsby joins us to discuss the connection between self-esteem and intuitive eating, how to heal from trauma related to food and body, fighting back against internalized fatphobia and body shame, setting compassionate boundaries, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to dissuade kids when they begin to subscribe to diet culture and body s...

Dana Falsetti—a yoga teacher, Instagram star (@nolatrees), and fellow podcast host dedicated to body liberation—shares how she found her yoga practice and the role it played in her body-acceptance journey, why setting boundaries is so important for healing from diet culture, the importance of self-compassion, why “doing no harm” doesn’t mean cutting out food groups, how she overcame her struggles...

Religious scholar and journalist Alan Levinovitz discusses how diet culture is like a religion, why so much modern nutrition advice is dangerous, why we need to think critically about restrictive eating practices, how suspicion of Western medicine can lead people to believe in harmful "miracle cures," why the "nocebo effect" is causing people to unnecessarily demonize particular fo...

Psychotherapist and co-founder of The Body Positive Elizabeth Scott joins us to talk about the problems with concern trolling and healthism, why it’s helpful to be vulnerable when defending the Health at Every Size paradigm, the process of unlearning diet culture and oppression, why dietitians are in the best position to support body acceptance, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener q...

Pioneering Health at Every Size® dietitian Joanne Ikeda joins us to discuss the history of the HAES movement, how the dietetics field and the role of the dietitian has changed over time, the effects of dieting on weight gain and weight cycling, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about the food industry and diet soda. Joanne Ikeda has been a pioneer in the development of th...

Health at Every Size® therapist Kathleen Bishop shares how the trauma of dieting gets passed from one generation to the next, how to mourn the loss of the life that diet culture stole from you, ways to start recovering from internalized weight stigma, the connection between substance use disorders and eating disorders, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to accept...

Non-diet dietitian Fiona Willer joins to discuss why we need to be critical of current weight research, how the Health at Every Size paradigm can go viral, why weight-inclusive work is a life-saving endeavor, how fatphobia and weight stigma prevent compassionate medical care for people in larger bodies, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to adjust to a different...

Writer and activist Ijeoma Oluo shares why she gave up the pursuit of weight loss even though she had "succeeded" at dieting, how she stepped away from the scale and made peace with her size, why body acceptance is a journey and not a destination, how to help kids develop peaceful relationships with their bodies, why worrying about your weight robs you of your life, why we need to stop obs...

Isabel Foxen Duke returns! We discuss the #1 reason why people engage in emotional eating and bingeing, why reclaiming your right to eat emotionally might be a key to healing your relationship with food, why recommendations for weight loss are scientifically unsound, how the effort to control our food can transfer to other areas of life after eating disorder recovery, why meditation and spiritual...

Researcher and activist Joy Cox joins us to talk about how we can fight back against internalized weight stigma and body shame, how intersecting identities can affect body image, why refusing to conform to cultural and societal expectations can help change the world, the racist roots of diet culture and why fighting it is an important part of creating a more inclusive society, the problems with fr...

Certified Body Trust Provider and Health at Every Size recovery coach and consultant Sarah Thompson joins us to talk about the barriers she faced to getting an eating disorder diagnosis, the ways in which diet culture has infiltrated naturopathy and Chinese medicine, the lack of Health at Every Size education in healthcare programs, the false connection that diet culture makes between larger bodie...

Body-liberation activist and author Jes Baker joins to talk about her new book, Landwhale; the value in all kinds of coping mechanisms and why we need to stop demonizing so-called “emotional eating;” the transmission of body negativity, body dysmorphia, and chronic dieting through family members; the swinging pendulum between Dietland and Donutland; and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listen...

Writer and “She’s All Fat” podcast co-host Sophia Carter-Kahn joins us to talk about her path from extreme dieting to intuitive eating, how dating interacts with fatphobia and weight bias, overcoming body shame and body dysmorphia, how parents are influenced by diet culture and healthism, why we need to think about weight stigma as an important variable in terms of health, and so much more! Plus,...

Body-positive photographer Lindley Ashline joins to talk about the power of representation, the process of breaking fashion rules for people in larger bodies, how the diet industry uses aspirational marketing to lure us in and keep us hooked, Lindley’s journey to her career in photography for diverse bodies, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about whether it’s appropriate...

Anti-diet therapist and author Judith Matz joins us to talk about shifting the focus of emotional eating toward the underlying deprivation and diet mentality, why turning to food to meet emotional needs isn’t an “eating problem” but a “soothing problem,” how diet culture and marginalization rob us of the ability to meet our needs, why Health at Every Size and intuitive eating are better approaches...

Psychologist and trans-health educator Sand Chang joins us to talk about the complex experience of body acceptance for transgender folks, the intersections of trans advocacy and Health at Every Size work, the growing body of research around trans folks and eating disorders, the shape-shifting nature of fatphobia and diet culture, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about ho...

Anti-diet therapist and Binge Eating Disorder expert Amy Pershing joins us to discuss how our fatphobic culture hinders recovery, how diet culture steals our personal power, the healing that can be found in getting angry, the role of restriction and trauma in binge eating, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about quick ways for primary-care providers to talk to patients ab...

Disability-rights advocate and writer Rebekah Taussig joins us to talk about why body positivity needs to be a radical and intersectional movement, the connection between body acceptance and disability rights, the many ways in which diet culture has infiltrated disability culture and affects people in disabled bodies, embracing all the emotions that surface when doing anti-oppression work, and so...